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Notebook
Geography Notes Baietours * 5 counties (not counting barbarian territory): Greenmarch, Iron Pass, Windvale, Timber's Reach, and Laracine. * One former county: Thornstrand (where the necromancer adventure takes place) * Barbarian territories referred to as Gravelcrest * Baietoursians are split between three ancestral clans: Riverfolk (quasi Dutch), Forestfolk (quasi German), and Valleyfolk (quasi French) (Actually I think I'll leave the names alone) * Baietours areas: **''Thornstrand:'' Capital of Gruftstadt - Desolated in the present day, completely infested with undead and fiends (In lich adventure: Fairly prosperous, if a little rustic, and is rich in minerals to provide for the nation) **''Iron Pass:'' Capital of Valdfort - ...Stuff Drow Lands * How about a RIVER OF OIL? :D Make sure it's in a place where a party would need to pass it to advance! Culture Notes * PHLEBOTINUM TIME: Scarletine ** Scarletine is a rare ore with highly valuable properties. When forged into metal, it has both the low density of mithral and the extreme hardness of adamantium, without the drawbacks of either. When refined as a powder, it can be mixed into a magic-rich potion that has all kinds of (undocumented) effects. But it is also thought that using scarletine can be hazardous to one's health... * Maybe use Eberron changelings? This looks like a decent starting point. Cosmology Notes * More later, I have a pretty good idea of how things work now. Spell Notes * More later, possibly. Class Notes * Changes to Fighter: ** Stat changes: 4 + Int skill points per level, Good Will save progression, Knowledge (local) and Perception are class skills ** Bravery is obsolesced. Any archetypes that replace bravery replace honed initiative instead (see below). ** Advanced weapon training options are completely available and encouraged. Fighters gain Advanced Weapon Training as a bonus feat at 5th level (see below), and can substitute their weapon training advancement for advanced weapon training options beginning at 9th level. *** The Armed Bravery option is obsolesced. ** New class features: *** Combat Stamina: At 1st level, a fighter gains Combat Stamina as a bonus feat. *** Honed Initiative: Starting at 2nd level, a fighter gains a +1 bonus on initiative checks. This bonus increases by +1 for every four levels beyond 2nd. *** Resilience: At 2nd level, a fighter can weather unusual and even magical assaults through sheer hardiness. If he succeeds at a Fortitude saving throw against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save, he instead takes no damage. Resilience can be used only if the fighter is wearing armor. A helpless fighter does not gain the benefit of resilience. *** Advanced Weapon Training: At 5th level, a fighter gains Advanced Weapon Training as a bonus feat. Fighters that do not have the weapon training class feature choose one fighter weapon group for the advanced weapon training option to apply to, though their weapon training bonus is zero. *** Improved Resilience: At 9th level, a fighter's resilience ability improves. He still takes no damage on successful Fortitude saving throws against attacks, but henceforth he takes only half damage on failed saves. A helpless fighter does not gain the benefit of improved resilience. Feat Notes * Combat Expertise is no longer needed as a prerequisite for any other feats. * Mobility is no longer needed as a prerequisite for any other feats. Feats that formerly required it now need Dodge instead. * Point Blank Shot is no longer needed as a prerequisite for any other feats. Feats that formerly required it now need +1 BAB instead. * Power Attack is no longer needed as a prerequisite for feats that also require Improved Bull Rush, Improved Drag, Improved Overrun, and Improved Sunder as prerequisites. (See below regarding additional notes for these feats.) * Improved Trip, Improved Disarm, Improved Dirty Trick, Improved Feint, Improved Reposition, and Improved Steal no longer exist. They are all replaced by the following feat. It serves as the prerequisite for feats that normally use one of the above. ** Deft Maneuvers (Prereq: Int 13, BAB +1): You do not provoke an attack of opportunity when performing a trip, disarm, dirty trick, reposition, or steal combat maneuver. In addition, you receive a +2 bonus to CMB when performing these combat maneuvers, a +2 bonus to CMD when defending against these maneuvers, and can make a Bluff check to feint as a move action rather than a standard action. * Improved Bull Rush, Improved Drag, Improved Overrun, and Improved Sunder no longer exist. They are all replaced by the following feat. It serves as the prerequisite for feats that normally use one of the above. ** Powerful Manueuvers: (Prereq: Str 13, BAB +1) You do not provoke an attack of opportunity when performing a bull rush, drag, overrun, or sunder combat maneuver. In addition, you receive a +2 bonus to CMB when performing these combat maneuvers, a +2 bonus to CMD when defending against these maneuvers, and targets that you attempt to overrun may not choose to avoid you. * Dodge now increases the dodge bonus to AC to +2 when the character has +6 BAB, and then to +3 when they have +12 BAB. * Double Slice no longer exists, and its benefits are merged into Improved Two-Weapon Fighting. Other feats no longer need it as a prerequisite. * Spring Attack can be used in conjunction with any kind of melee attack that can be performed with a standard action, including Cleave, Vital Strike, and two-weapon fighting. (For two-weapon fighting, the primary attack is made with the user's highest BAB, and the second attack is made with applicable penalties as normal.) * If any of the replaced feats are granted by class abilities or other sources, consult with the GM for a suitable replacement. Other Rules Notes * Massive Damage for Pathfinder (alternative to default): Immediately, after losing half of maximum hit points in a single attack (at a minimum of 10 hit points), the damaged character makes a DC 15 Fortitude save, and suffers one rolled effect if he or she fails: : * Player characters and notable NPCs in Orthonia use a variation of Paizo's background skills rules. It works exactly as written, with the following exceptions: ** All Knowledge skills are considered background skills. ** Characters can only put one background skill rank per level into a Knowledge skill. * Planar travel in Orthonia is more nuanced than in other settings. ** Firstly, the astral and ethereal planes are technically one and the same and are collectively referred to as The Beyond, though astral travel generally refers to the Deep Beyond while ethereal travel refers to the Shallow Beyond. One can travel between the shallow and the deep by finding and stepping into an aether well while wandering the Shallow Beyond. Aether wells can be found wherever the world's aether flows strongest, and finding one may require some prior research. ** To facilitate travel to an entirely different plane, either through the deep Beyond or directly via a spell, the traveler must obtain a Shard of Creation, a form of concentrated primordial matter from which the destination plane itself is made of. For example, one who wishes to travel to the plane of Pandemonium must get their hands on a Pandemonium shard. Though they are not easy to come by on the Material Plane, a Pandemonium shard might be obtained from a mage who deals with demons on a regular basis, or perhaps even from a powerful demon directly. ** The Shallow Beyond functions similarly to the Ethereal Plane in other settings, but the Deep Beyond is a roiling maelstrom of unstable aether, which manifests as a maze for the traveler to navigate. Suitable premade mazes can be found in the Google Docs folder, or they can be created with the Maze Generator python script. In summary: a Deep Beyond maze has one entrance and three exits. Each of the exits contains a number of portals that lead to other planes - these could be randomly determined or left up to the GM, but at least one of the portals in one of the exits should be the traveler's intended destination. Randomly decide which one this is (Rolling a d4 works fine for this, but so does deciding for yourself.) None of the portals will open themselves if the traveler does not have a shard of their corresponding plane. The traveler should map the maze out by themselves; if they are lost or confused, they can make a Knowledge (Planes) check (DC 15-20; whenever a character attempts this check, start with DC 14 and roll a d6, adding the result to the DC) to feel the connection between their shard and the portal and gain a sense of direction. If they fail the check by 5 or less, they feel a tug in two directions, one of which is the correct one. ** Traveling through the Deep Beyond is dangerous. Each time a traveler accesses the Deep Beyond, for instance to travel to another plane, they incur a cumulative 1% chance of coming down with Aether Sickness, a strange magical disease that affects each sufferer differently. ** It's said that becoming permanently lost in the Deep Beyond results in the traveler being expelled into The Eternity, an infinite expanse where physics and logic no longer make sense. Returning to any kind of plane of existence from The Eternity is supposed to be nigh-impossible... ** Some notes about spells: ** Shadow Walk: Shadow walk functions as described without interfering with The Beyond, though in Orthonia only the Material Plane borders the Shadow Plane, and thus it's not suitable for traveling to the Inner or Outer Planes. ** Ethereal Projection: This is a (lower-level) variant of astral projection that functions similarly but puts the user and passengers in the Shallow Beyond, rather than the Deep Beyond. It still functions as it would be expected to. ** Astral Projection: Astral Projection puts an astral body of the user and passengers directly in the Deep Beyond, where they can explore it at will. It's common practice in Orthonia for one of the travelers (typically the caster) to stay on standby to help others if they get lost. ** Plane Shift: A traveler can use plane shift to travel to a plane directly from the Material Plane if they possess a shard of that plane, though doing so carries a 25% chance of destroying the shard in the process. ** Gate: Any instance of gate being cast in Orthonia is extremely rare. That said, using it for planar travel allows travelers to move directly to another plane with no risk of destroying a shard of creation. Additionally, the caster can attempt a DC 35 caster check to attempt to make the gate permanent, though doing so requires the shard of creation to be sacrificed. None have succeeded in doing this in Orthonia's history, so it's unknown if there exist any ways to close such a gate... ** Etherealness and Ethereal Jaunt: These spells are normally too short in duration to allow a traveler to physically travel to another plane, though the user of etherealness might be lucky if they got to the Deep Beyond before they rematerialized on the Material Plane.